Glowing Steps

 
GLD-013 [LUMINOUS FOOTPRINTS]

Anonymous; Nature , 12:564, October 28, 1875.

      A correspondent of the Aberystwith Observer, the Rev. James Lewis, of Llanilar Vicarage, writes as follows to that journal:

--"whilst returning from service at the parish church of Rhostie, at about 8.15 p.m. on Friday, the 24th ult., in company with two members of the congregation, my attention was called to a remarkably strange phenomenon. In walking across a field on the farm of Cwmclyd, it was noticed that our footsteps were marked by a peculiar light, which could be traced back for several yards, each footprint being as distinctly marked on the ground as when one walks in snow. When we got into the adjoining field the light disappeared until we came near to the end of it, when it was observed that our footsteps were again marked by the same luminous appearance. In colour the light was similar to that of phosphorus rubbed on a wall in a dark room, or a mass of glow-worms, or which insect, however, there was no trace on the surrounding ground."

Since no electrical storm or other atmospheric effects were mentioned, this luminous phenomenon may be chemical or biological in origin. There are, however, cases of terrain made luminous by some sort of electric discharge phenomenon.

-from Strange Phenomena: A Sourcebook of Unusual Natural Phenomena, compiled by William R. Corliss, 1973